just letting you know about today’s two culinary cornerstones, timewise:

#1: i started the day at icecream parlor monte pelmo, located in a side street of the buzzing westerstraat – and daring guests to try some pretty crazy new flavors! green tea with goji berries? spicy strawberry? mister nico (whatever that is)?

fun fact: the parlor is run by the daughter of freddy “de zingende ijscoman” cornell (pictured right)!

by the way: just because something goes really well with the customers doesn’t mean it is still going to be there next week. or ever again – it just depends on what mood creative mastermind ivo is in. for me this meant: no gojis this time – shame!

#2: i let late afternoon turn into early evening (yes, this included a sunset over amsterdam west!) at the extra-lovely cafe kaliber north of vondelpark. the place is run by hometown friends daan littley and maarten huurdeman, the latter of whom described their approach with the words: “with food, we consider ourselves djs.” which is why they take the best local ingredients from low-radar, high-quality companies – meat from brandt & levie, homemade bread from mama, icecream from de ijsmakerij – and have them turned into beautifully presented dishes by a chef they happened to get to know on their own terras.

basically all ingredients (including wine, excluding coke) are a 100% organic, yet the dishes come with a price tag that is not going to have anybody rely on crackers for the rest of the month.

following maarten’s recommendation, i went with a tender pork rillette (pictured above), which came with warm bread, pickled cucumbers, rocket, olive oil and a fresh spring onion. paired with an italian white wine (it is ell worth asking for suggestions that are not on the menu!), this was, you know it, delicious. oh, and speaking of dj’ing: you will hear some excellent tunes here, too, spun exclusively on vintage vinyl!

more cornestones already in line, namely two grachten cafés at jan eversenstraat: radijs and bar spek (they are hosting a special dinner event this thursday) and the night cries – hipster heaven! oh, and sounds of the underground festival kicks off this wednesday, featuring tons of performances by bands whose names i have never heard. but when has broadening one’s horizon ever been a bad thing, right!

as always: check out my instagram for additional photos…